If I had a dollar for every time I received an email with, “Hey, you haven’t heard from me for a while, but now I’m back…”
And, I’ll admit that I have sent some of these out myself over the years.
Maintaining consistent marketing is a grind, and something I have not done well. So, I am writing this post to kick my own butt as much as I am to kick yours.
I started thinking about people who have done a good job consistently and what they were doing to keep themselves on track.
Being Committed
My colleague Catherine Johns does a fantastic job sending her newsletter out. Her posts are smart, timely, and interesting. Her topics tend to be around public speaking, presence, networking, and writing.
She finds her topics from things she’s read, questions from audience participants, sessions with clients, and I truly admire her consistency.
For many of us, commitment isn’t enough. We need accountability – or some other compelling reason to make us do what we’re supposed to do.
Hiring Help
My colleague Tom Rosenak realized he could create the content for his newsletters because he was really excited about his podcasts, but struggled to make himself load it into his email marketing software. He opted to pay someone to do that for him, which has had the added benefit of keeping him on a schedule of creating content so they can sent it out for him.
Another way you could hire help is to have someone write the newsletter, or at least the draft of the newsletter, for you. White page syndrome is a thing, and it can be much easier to react to something than to watch the blinking cursor and wonder what the heck you’re going to write about.
Getting Support
For a while I hired a marketing coach to kick my butt. I can’t recommend Victoria Cook enough. During the time we worked together was probably the only time I have ever done the marketing I should be doing on the right cadence.
After working with her for several months, I thought I was in the groove and had created good habits.
I was wrong.
What happened was exactly like being on a diet during the holidays. Sigh.
Another way you could get support would be to have a marketing accountability group. You could connect with a few other small business owners and commit to your marketing schedule verbally and in writing. This would make you MUCH more likely to actually do it.
You might mess up one week, but you wouldn’t want to tell the group you didn’t do what you were supposed to do more than once.
Seeing Results
Another way to stay on track is to think back to times when you got clients from sending out your newsletter, or got a nice note back from someone who liked it. The problem with sending stuff out into cyberspace is it can feel like you’re hurling your hard work into a black hole.
Over the years, I have heard from people who I hadn’t worked with in a while, gotten thank-you notes, and received referrals. You would think this would keep me doing what I know I need to be doing, but I frequently fall off the horse.
I hope this inspires you (and me!) to saddle up and get back on the marketing horse.